Alibaba and 1688: how to buy wholesale, what MOQ is and what Trade Assurance covers

Alibaba is often mentioned alongside AliExpress, but it is a different game. AliExpress is retail, one unit at a time. Alibaba.com is a wholesale platform where you buy from manufacturers and wholesalers in tens, hundreds or thousands of units. This is no longer classic dropshipping: you buy the goods in advance and decide for yourself where to keep them.

This part of the guide covers when it makes sense to move to Alibaba, what MOQ means, how Trade Assurance protection works, how to order a sample and how to recognise a scam.

Alibaba, AliExpress and 1688: the differences

1688 is often praised for its lower prices, but it is meant for China’s domestic market: a different language, different payment methods, and a foreign buyer usually needs an intermediary who buys, checks and forwards the goods. The intermediary’s fee and the extra link in the chain are your cost and your risk. For a beginner it rarely pays off.

What MOQ is

MOQ (minimum order quantity) is the smallest number of units a supplier agrees to produce or sell in one order. It is shown next to every product and often depends on the price: the more you buy, the lower the price per unit.

• MOQ is negotiable. Many suppliers agree to sell less for a first order, only at a higher price.
• A low MOQ is not always good. If a “manufacturer” sells a few units at a time, it is probably a reseller.
• Calculate the whole batch. 300 units at 4 € each is 1 200 €, which you pay before selling a single one.

What Trade Assurance covers

Trade Assurance is Alibaba.com’s order protection programme. The platform’s pages state that you can claim your money back if the order was not shipped, went missing or arrived with defects: faulty, the wrong goods, damaged.

Ordering a sample and negotiating

1. Write to several suppliers. The same list of questions for all of them: price for different quantities, MOQ, production time, packaging, conformity documents.
2. Order a sample. It costs more than a unit in a batch and you pay for shipping separately – that is normal. A supplier who will not provide a sample is not a supplier.
3. Write down the specification. What exactly must be in the batch, and with what permitted tolerance.
4. Negotiate the terms, not just the price. A smaller first quantity, payment in instalments and photos before shipping are often worth more than a few cents.
5. Buy a small first batch. A sample shows what the supplier can produce, not what it will produce.

What to include in the cost of a batch

Only when all the lines are added up does the true cost per unit become clear. It is always higher than the price in the supplier’s listing, and by how much only your own calculation for the specific product will show.

When this is no longer dropshipping

When you buy wholesale, you bring the goods into the EU in your own name. That changes three things:

• Taxes. The batch is subject to ordinary import duties and import VAT, not the procedure for small parcels. The rate depends on the commodity code.
• Product liability. Under the EU General Product Safety Regulation, every product must have a responsible economic operator in the EU. When you import, that becomes you.
• Stock. Your money is tied up in goods that still have to be sold, stored and shipped.

On the other hand, delivery to the buyer takes a day or two and the margin is higher. So wholesale makes sense once you already know that the product sells.

Signs of a scam

The police daily incident reports for October 2026 describe a case in Trakai district: a company received forged account details of its foreign partners by email and transferred 54 374 € to the specified account at a foreign bank. In the same month, in Vilnius district, a man transferred 199 900 € to the crypto wallets of a supposed seller for two cars being bought in Slovakia and did not receive the cars. If you become a victim, call your bank immediately and report it to the police via epolicija.lt or by calling 112.

Frequently asked questions